Four More Years

Of postmortems there will be no end. What follows is less ambitious, a mere personal response written three days after the election.

• It was a severe defeat. There are a few consoling features, most of all the failure of the Republicans to take the House of Representatives. There are a few positive facts: the nomination of a woman for national office, the large-scale entry of blacks into politics, the steadiness of the Jewish vote despite the Reaganite flirtation of the Commentary crowd. But a defeat it was, and it cannot be explained simply by citing President Reagan’s popularity. That popularity itself is a sign and consequence of conservative moods—can you imagine a Ronald Reagan being adored at a moment of ...